gooseberry
(ˈgʊzbərɪ)
Forms: 6 gose, gows-, 6–8 goos-, 7 gous-, 9 Sc. guse-, 6– goose-: and see berry.
[Prob. f. goose n. + berry n.
The grounds on which plants and fruits have received names associating them with animals are so commonly inexplicable, that the want of appropriateness in the meaning affords no sufficient ground for assuming that the word is an etymologizing corruption, e.g. of Du. kruisbezie, G. krausbeere, or of a hypothetical *gorseberry or *groseberry (see groser, groset); though the last derives some little support from the existence of the form gozell for *grosell.]
1. The edible berry or fruit of any of the thorny species of the genus Ribes, the best known and most commonly cultivated of which is R. Grossularia; also the plant or shrub itself (more fully gooseberry-bush, gooseberry-tree).
| c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 912 Gose berrys, groiselles. 1573 Tusser Husb. xvi. (1878) 41 The Goose⁓bery, Respis and Roses. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 196 All the other gifts appertinent to man (as the malice of this Age shapes them) are not woorth a Goose berry. 1620 Venner Via Recta iii. 59 It is very good..to stuffe them with sowre-grapes, or vnripe-gooseberries. 1663 P. Henry Diaries (1882) 131 Trees received from Mr. Hammond. 6 Apples. 6 Corans. 6 Goosberryes. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 116 Goosberries being through ripe, taste the most like Grapes of any of our English Fruits. 1740 Somerville Hobbinol iii. 42 Crystal Gooseberries Are piled on Heaps; in vain the Parent-Tree Defends her luscious Fruit with pointed Spears. 1859 Thompson Gardener's Assist. 380 In the gooseberry and currant, the leaves have chiefly performed their office when the fruit is ripened off. |
† 2. Extended to the other species of
Ribes; see
currant 2.
Obs.| 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. lxx. 635 The Ribes or beyond sea gooseberries. Ibid. vi. xx. 682 The blacke gooseberies growe of them selues in moyst vntoyled places. Ibid. 683 Ribes rubrum; in English Redde Gooseberries, beyond-sea Gooseberries, Bastard Corinthes. 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 319 Red Gooseberries. |
3. Applied to various shrubs resembling the gooseberry (sense 1) in some way, as
American gooseberry,
Heterotrichum patens or
H. niveum;
Barbados gooseberry,
Pereskia aculeata;
Cape gooseberry,
Physalis edulis or
P. peruviana;
Coromandel gooseberry,
Averrhoa Carambola;
little gooseberry (
Austral.),
Buchanania mangoides;
Otaheite or
Tahiti gooseberry,
Phyllanthus distichus.
| 1847 Leichhardt Jrnl. xiv. 497 The little gooseberry-tree (Coniogeton Arborescens). 1864 Grisebach Flora W. Ind. 784 Gooseberry, American...Gooseberry, Barbadoes. 1866 Treas. Bot. 543/1 Coromandel Gooseberry...Tahiti Gooseberry. 1882 J. Smith Dict. Pop. Names Plants s.v. Winter Cherry, The Cape Gooseberry..a native of tropical America. |
4. Short for
gooseberry-wine. Also applied jocularly to inferior or spurious brands of champagne.
| 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. v, The fond mother..insisted upon her landlord's stepping in, and taking a glass of her goose⁓berry. 1821 Lamb Elia Ser. i. All Fools' Day, Fill us a cup of that sparkling gooseberry—we will drink no wise, melancholy, politic port on this day. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis iv, Pen could not but respect Foker's connoisseurship as he pronounced the champagne to be condemned gooseberry. 1893 K. Deighton Lamb's Ess. Elia 130 Whether used literally of gooseberry wine, or of champagne, inferior brands of which wine are often spoken of contemptuously as ‘gooseberry’ [etc.]. |
5. A chaperon or one who ‘plays propriety’ with a pair of lovers,
esp. in
to play gooseberry. (
Cf. gooseberry-picker in 8.)
| 1837 J. F. Palmer Devonsh. Gloss., Gubbs, a go-between or gooseberry. ‘To play gooseberry’ is to give a pretext to two young people to be together. 1870 R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 169 Gooseberry I may be..but, at all events, I won't be instrumental in making myself so. 1881 W. E. Norris Matrim. I. 21 Let the old woman choose between playing gooseberry or loitering behind alone. 1889 G. Allen Tents of Shem II. 118 Madame didn't know a single word of English and was, therefore, admirably adapted..for enacting with effect the part of the common or garden gooseberry. |
6. a. slang. old gooseberry = the deuce (
deuce2 a);
esp. to play († up) old gooseberry, to make havoc (
† see also
quot. 1796).
| 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3) s.v., He played up old gooseberry among them; said of a person who, by force or threats, suddenly puts an end to a riot or disturbance. 1827 Sporting Mag. XXI. 144 Several of the gentlemen rode over the dressed grounds and played old gooseberry with them. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxviii, I'll play Old Gooseberry with the office, and make you glad to buy me out at a good high figure. 1865 H. Kingsley Hillyars & Burtons III. xiii. 149 You should have a tea⁓stick, and take them [dogs] by the tail..and lay on like old gooseberry. 1883 Ld. R. Gower My Remin. II. xxvii. 249 A great gale..played old gooseberry with the boats. |
b. gooseberry bush: used allusively in reference to the explanation of child-birth sometimes given in answer to a child's question.
| 1944 Brahms & Simon Titania has Mother xiii. 146 Fairy Peaseblossom..had never thought she would find herself hankering after one of Simple Simon's curious questions, but now she found she simply couldn't wait for the next one—even if it should be ‘but why a goose⁓berry bush again’ ? 1952 V. Wilkins King Reluctant i. iii. 47 When girls come home and tell their fond relations that they have just found a baby..under a gooseberry bush, you know what the world says, don't you? 1956 B. Goolden At Foot of Hills x. 234 Perhaps she's one of the gooseberry bush brigade and is horrified by the precocity of the modern young. Or is it just because she loathes babies? 1964 G. L. Cohen What's Wrong with Hospitals? iv. 69 Middle-class mothers are an anxious lot; they have no precedent on child-rearing which hasn't been kicked into limbo along with gooseberry bushes. 1969 Guardian 28 Oct. 11/5 Many children said they were glad to know what happened, and not be fobbed off with a lot of gooseberry bushes. |
7. attrib. and
Comb. a. attributive, as
gooseberry-bush,
gooseberry-cream,
gooseberry-fair,
gooseberry-feast,
gooseberry-jam,
gooseberry-jelly,
gooseberry-pudding,
gooseberry-sauce,
gooseberry-show,
gooseberry-tart,
gooseberry-tree,
gooseberry-wine.
b. objective, as
gooseberry-grower.
c. similative, as
† gooseberry-cheek; also
gooseberry-eye (
cf. gooseberry-eyed in 8);
gooseberry-orb = prec.| 1530 Palsgr. 226/2 *Goseberry busshe, groseillier. 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 88 Vua crispa is also called Grossularia, in english a Groser bushe, a Goosebery bush. 1771 Richardson in Phil. Trans. LXI. 183 On the goosberry-bush and currant the same Aphides may be found. |
| a 1658 Cleveland Poems (1677) 86 First on her *Goosberry Cheeks I mine eys Blasted. |
| 1706 Closet Rarities (N.), To make *Gooseberry-Cream. |
| 1789 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Subj. for Painters Wks. 1812 II. 174 How sweetly roll your *Gooseberry Eyes. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. 422 A portly gentleman with gooseberry eyes. |
| 1825 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 437 What are called the ‘*Gooseberry fairs’ by the wayside, whereat heats are run upon half-killed horses, or..donkeys. |
| 1796 Sporting Mag. VIII. 274 The late Bath annual *gooseberry feast. |
| 1834–43 Southey Doctor cxxxix. (1848) 348/2 He was much esteemed among the Class of *Gooseberry Growers. |
| 1846 ‘A Lady’ Jewish Man. viii. 165 Strawberry jam... By this recipe also are made raspberry, currant, *goose⁓berry, apricot, and other jams. 1861 Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. 778 (heading) Gooseberry jam. |
| Ibid. 779 (heading) *Gooseberry jelly. |
| 1803 J. Porter Thaddeus (1826) III. v. 102 When [she] compared..Pembroke's dark and ever-animated eyes, with the *gooseberry orbs of Lascelles. |
| 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 183 *Gooseberry Pudding. |
| 1845 E. Acton Mod. Cookery iv. 137 (heading) *Gooseberry sauce for mackerel. |
| 1796 Sporting Mag. VIII. 274 The annual *gooseberry shew, held at the house of Mr. Robert Huxley. 1859 Thompson Gardener's Assist. 559 The great number of gooseberry shows held in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire. |
| 1785 A. Ellicott in Life & Lett. (1908) 44 Our waiters are now preparing some *Goose-Berry Tart. 1845 Budd Dis. Liver 185 After imprudently eating gooseberry tart, she was seized with violent pain. |
| c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 914 *Gowsbery tre, groiselier. 1707 Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 197 Fig-trees, Quince-Trees, Goosberry-Trees. |
| 1707 Sir J. More England's Interest (title-p.), How to Make..*Gooseberry, and Mulberry Wines. 1849 Gooseberry wine [see marigold 1 a]. 1971 Times 10 Nov. (Wine Suppl.) 3/6 Skilfully made gooseberry wine can be successfully passed off as champagne to the uninitiated. |
8. Special comb.:
gooseberry-caterpillar, ? the caterpillar of the
gooseberry-moth;
gooseberry-eyed a. (see
quot.);
gooseberry-louse = harvest-bug;
gooseberry-moth, the magpie-moth (
Abraxas grossulariata);
gooseberry-picker, one who picks gooseberries,
colloq. a chaperon (so
gooseberry-picking vbl. n.);
gooseberry-pie, (
a) a pie made of gooseberries, etc.; (
b) (see
quot. 1879);
gooseberry-season, the time when gooseberries are ripe,
esp. in
big gooseberry season, the time of year when the newspapers have plenty of space to record trifles;
gooseberry-wig (see
quot.).
| 1882 Garden 6 May 319/3 A sharp look out must now be kept for *Gooseberry caterpillars. |
| 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), *Gooseberry-eyed, one with dull grey eyes, like boiled gooseberries. |
| 1856 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 290 The new insect called ‘harvest bugs’, or ‘*gooseberry lice’..imported in some American plants. |
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxvi. (1818) II. 452 The caterpillars of the *gooseberry-moth. |
| 1868 Yates Rock Ahead ii. ix, In his capacity of *gooseberry-picker, Lord S. was led..into anything but pleasant pastures. 1888 J. Payn Myst. Mirbridge III. xli. 128 He had a sort of ‘Don't mind me’ way with him that made him quite the perfection of a ‘gooseberry-picker’. |
| 1747 H. Glasse Cookery 114 A custard is very good with the *gooseberry pie. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. vii, Go help your mother to make the gooseberry pie. 1879 Britten & Holland Plant-n., Gooseberry pie, Epilobium hirsutum L., from the smell of the leaves. |
| 1787 ‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsemen (1809) 26 How to make up a good stout..dose of physic for your wife or servants, in the *gooseberry season. |
| 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), *Gooseberry wig, a large frizzled wig; perhaps, from a supposed likeness to a gooseberry bush. |